Degrees

Ph.D., Northwestern University (2019)
M.A., Brandeis University (2011)
B.A. (Honours) University of Calgary (2009)

Research Interests

My research program is centered around the norms that govern our social world and how those norms shape our epistemic lives. This means looking at how the norms governing our relationships to one another, as well as the social institutions that shape our communities, can work either for or against our epistemic health. My current work concerns how those norms can be abused and eroded in ways that harm us specifically in our capacities as epistemic agents. I call this epistemic infringement and show how this concept can deepen our understanding of a variety of social phenomena, including phenomena familiar to philosophers like propaganda and gaslighting, as well as less familiar phenomena such as predatory grooming.

Fundamentally, I am interested in the relationship between epistemic agency, personhood, and human flourishing. In all of my research, I am motivated by exploring philosophy, and social epistemology in particular, at interdisciplinary crossroads, including with contemporary social science and social neuroscience. Some of my works-in-progress concern the relationship between epistemic agency and the neuroscience of prolonged isolation, as well as the relationship between our built environments, the concept of “design justice”.

Teaching Interests

My primary teaching interests lie in social and applied epistemology, and so in exploring our epistemic lives as fundamentally social epistemic agents. I am also interested in the Early Modern period, feminist philosophy, decision theory, and philosophy of science. Additionally, I am deeply committed to prison education and have taught previously at Stateville Correctional Facility and the Cook County Jail.

Selected Publications

“Predatory Grooming and Epistemic Infringement,” in Jennifer Lackey (ed.), Applied Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (2021)

“Some Resistance to the Idealized Thermometer Model.” Episteme 13: 423-426. (2016)

Links

leydonhardy.net